2012 Jeep Wrangler: Oil Change Alert Redux

October 11, 2012

Forget what I said earlier about the dealer tweaking our longterm 2012 Jeep Wrangler's oil change alert interval. As one commenter pointed out, the Jeep's alert is one of those deals that is based on an algorithm that -- after monitoring numerous engine sensors over time -- makes an educated guess at how beat-up the oil is and sets the alert accordingly. This type of non-adjustable, algorithm-based alert is becoming common, though not yet universal.

Earlier I'd assumed our Jeep's alert was a conventional, old-school odometer-based-only alert as I went straight to the owner's manual's maintenance chart (shown above) and saw no caveats or asterisks. A different section of the manual (after the jump) describes the alert.

So in our case, it seems there's no dealer monkey business related to the alert after all, and the 8000-mile oil change interval in the lead chart might could benefit from an asterisk pointing to the pages shown immediately above.